Slow Motion
by tenkage onna
Summary: They were just lonely boys, who had found comfort in eachother's presance. The stair case was their haven. Why did it end this way? AU, before the manga


oh yeah, finally a shaman king fic from me again! erm...yeah. forgive me if i got manta's eye color wrong~? (bats eyelashes) oh, i totally urge you to go find the amvs "at the begining" and "ordinary day" for yoh and manta on amv. org! =3 they rule monkey!!

warning: AU, fluff, character death.  
inspiration: y'know, i honestly dont know.  
reason: cuz i was inspiiiiired by yoh/manta amvs. wait. aha! that was my inspiration then.  
rating: psh, not even pg. ish.  
pairing: fluffy yoh/manta.  
summary: he was just a lonely boy. and he was just a scared and lonely boy. the staircase was their haven, and it was also their end.  
disclaimer: not mine, never will be. plz dont sue.

enjoy! i hope. ehehe....

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School was hell.

In fact, Yoh hated it. The children avoided him like the plague. The teachers shunned him. It was awful. Every day, Yoh sat at the same table, with no one sitting with him. The silence wasn't welcome, but compared to the obnoxious shrieks of children when he came near, it was his haven. His parents were always busy, leaving him with only his grandpa, who was kind but distant. Besides, compared to them, what was a child's trouble?

So Yoh was left to bear with it, and did so bitterly. Children avoided him, coupled with his glare, he sat at his empty table. But it was okay, because Yoh liked his empty table. No one could boss him around or make fun of him. He was used to sitting alone during recess, eating alone and being whispered about.

Then he came.

He was an outsider, so he couldn't have known about Yoh or his family's reputation. He was short, even for an eight year old, with a musty yellow head of hair that looked like a bird's feathers, and wide brown eyes that seemed to distrust everything that he couldn't prove was there. His clothing seemed like it was for ordinary children, but if anyone cared to look at the tags, they were high priced and made of fine material. At first glance, you'd see a rich child that was spoiled, but when Yoh looked he saw two things.

This boy was scared and lonely. Like him. And he was new, from far away and he didn't know. He didn't know. Yoh saw a potential friend. The boy was timid, flinching away from Yoh until he was certain others saw him as well, which puzzled Yoh.

Yoh found it suspicious, but didn't comment. Best not to scare his potential friend. So he spent his recess talking to the strange boy. His name was Manta Oyamada, he was here because his parents wanted him to have a vacation, and he was eight. The fact he wouldn't be there for long made Yoh's heart sink. Should he forget about making a new friend? No. He refused to be lonely, if he could be happy for even a moment.

The classes with Manta went by with excitement, for all of a day. Then, the other kids caught Manta and began to talk to him. A wave of cold fear went through Yoh. They'd tell him. That day, he didn't bother to go look for the missing boy. The next day Manta showed up at Yoh's table with a timid smile, climbing into his plastic chair with mild difficulty. Yoh had thought for a moment the other would begin to act differently, like everyone did when they found out. However, he surprised the brunette.

"I see them to." he said quietly, glancing around warily.

For the first time since they first met, Yoh felt his heart begin to pound hard and swell up. It turned out that Manta could see ghosts to, and had difficulty differentiating them from living humans. This was why his parents sent him away, thinking it was from stress. The days drew on, spent in bliss and for once, the empty table didn't feel like home when it was just Yoh.

They were so happy, he remembers.

When Yoh brought home a friend, a wide and proud smile on his face, his grandfather had been shocked. His grandson, who was normally shunned, had a friend. Yoh began to explain that Manta could see ghosts, and he and Yoh always played together. Manta was busy looking around in wary awe at the leaf sprites, too busy taking in the sight of the Asakura household to listen to Yoh's excited explanation. He timidly played with one sprite, a happy little smile on his face as it clapped its hands. As time went by, that smile began to be worth more and more to Yoh.

His grandpa had been proud. So very proud, that he even gave the two boys snacks before dinner, and didn't lecture Yoh on his lack of training. From then on, Manta came over to play every day after school, filling the yards and stair cases with cheery laughter. Yoh's mother was excited to see her son playing with a child, and even joined in some of the games. The stairs were their favorite play area.

They wouldn't get nagged at, and it was more fun to play tag there. Among other things, was that the leaf sprites always collected there to rest. It always made Manta excited to see the little spirits running about, and whenever Manta was happy, Yoh was happy. He didn't know it then, but he supposed he had a crush on the boy. And so they played there often, giggling and watching the sprites, occasionally pestering them to play.

It would figure that it would end there.

It was all an honest mistake, an accident. Yoh was trying to get Manta off his arm, it was over some silly argument. He didn't expect him to let go like that, he didn't mean to hit him. Yet all the same, time seemed to slow as the boy's eyes widened, mouth opening slightly to cry out as he fell back. Yoh swore he tried to grab him back, he swore it. But his hands had missed Manta's smaller ones, and before he could force his terror stricken body to move, it was already too late.

The fall was a long one, Yoh thinks. It was a long way to the bottom, and Manta had been so small and delicate with his fluffy feather hair and tiny body. The stairs were so hard and cold and chipped like daggers, and Manta's soft hoodie couldn't compete. The resounding smack, thud, then finally a sound crunch cut through the warm air of summer. The dazed and pained look that shot over the boy's face stunned Yoh. And even to this day, he swore the blood that leaked Manta's skull when he finally hit the last step was redder than any sunset.

Even to this day, he woke up in cold sweats, remembering the grotesque and horrifying sight. Yoh refused to even go near that stair case for weeks, and just walking down them made him a wreck for months after. Now, being thirteen and on his way to Tokyo, he felt a hollow pang of guilt as he walked down the steps. Sometimes, he swore he still heard Manta giggling here around sunset, or a steady thump thump as he fell down the stairs when he walked up them. But he brushed it off as a phantom sound, because he had been there when Manta finally crossed over.

As he stepped onto the train, sitting down and watching the world pass by through a window, it was almost as if his life had fled him. Even if he didn't mean to push Manta, every time he thought about it, all he heard was "killer, murderer, terrible demon child!" go through his head. And ever since that fateful crunch, nothing had ever been the same.

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yeah, chittery ending i know....but eh. enjoy??? maybe?? sorta? kinda...?


End file.
